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Floor Speech

DHS has a quarter-million Federal employees--a quarter-million. ICE has 20,000 of that quarter-million. And the argument has been about those 20,000 somewhat, but the problem is those 20,000 also do a pretty vital job for the country.

Let me give you an example. Homeland Security investigators are part of ICE. Those Homeland Security investigators are the Federal agents that actually investigate human trafficking. They are the Federal agents that do drug smuggling across the border. Homeland Security investigators are the investigators that actually prohibit American arms sales going out of the country to foreign nationals. These individuals are very important to us.

Now, a fraction of ICE is what they call ERO, which is actually doing the arrests here, but a large portion of ICE, of those 20,000 folks, are actually doing a lot of our drug smuggling, human trafficking, arms trafficking--all those functions.

So to be able to say ``I am defunding ICE'' is one thing, but you are also defunding all those Federal entities that are homeland security entities on it as well. That is our challenge in this.

As I have said to my colleagues before, when they defund ICE, at what point does it ever turn back on? At what point do they ever come back to my Democratic colleagues and say: It is time to actually fund ICE.

The pressure from the hard left outside has been so focused on defunding ICE, defunding ICE, defunding ICE that it is going to make it very, very difficult for any of my colleagues to ever vote and say they are going to do this.

Now, as far as the negotiation process, my colleague from Hawaii is correct. There have been some letters that have been exchanged. Part of my frustration, and I have shared it with him before, is that the offer he was dictating was actually made, and there was no response that came back for 18 days.

So the offer was made to say: Let's talk about this. Here is a proposal.

Eighteen days later, there was a response. We lost 2\1/2\ weeks of time in negotiation to be able to do it.

Now, thankfully, it has moved past just that letter. There is actually legislative language. That language is being debated behind closed doors now, finally, to be able to talk about it. There have been Democratic Members that are meeting with the White House and with Republican Members here in the Senate to be able to go more in depth to be able to figure out what to do.

It is deescalation training. Yes, it is definitely body-worn cameras and including how they are going to be used, to try to be able to mandate those. It is identification for officers. It is when they step out of their vehicle, to identify who they are, to be able to track that. It is a lot of the aspects that have been discussed, including the warrant issue. My Democratic colleagues have said it is really important. We want to be able to deal with the warrant issue as well.

All those things are in current negotiation around legislative language.

Last week, I stood here and said: Why aren't we staying through the weekend to be able to work to solve this? Why are we leaving and going home? We should stay at the wheel and keep working until it is actually resolved--not just for the quarter-million folks that are in DHS but also those 20,000 folks that also work with ICE. They have families as well. They have mortgages as well. They also want to be able to get paid, the same as everybody else.

So the challenge now becomes--we are not going to just defund ICE and then never turn it back on, so ICE agents quit because they know they are not getting paid, and it just drags on for a long time. We need to actually resolve the differences.

My colleague and I agree on body-worn cameras. We agree on deescalation. Now, we disagree somewhat on the mask issue because the problem has become unique. There are now activists who have apps. They are snapping pictures and saying: There is an ICE agent here. They are snapping a picture of their vehicle. They are putting it together. And other people are snapping where they are, tracking, using facial recognition to be able to identify where their family is. ICE agents, for the first time that I know of ever, now literally put their families at risk from Americans. In the past, ICE agents knew there were cartels that were pursuing them. Now it is not just cartels; it is leftwing activists that are now trying to snap a picture of them.

So while they are in one city, you can actually have an activist show up in their hometown, at their home address, and to be able to torment their family there.

For the sake of the ICE agent and for their kids, why would we not allow them to be able to protect themselves and to be able to protect their family? They are doing a job that the Federal Government has asked them to do, to go pick up criminals and to go pick up criminal aliens. Let's protect our family in the process of actually doing that.

So I do object to this, but I would love to be able to offer a second alternative to this in the days ahead.

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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, my friend from Hawaii is actually correct on the color of money issue. There shouldn't be a difference. Those are taxpayer dollars, all of them, so the taxpayers should have accountability in that, and there shouldn't be a limitation on that. That is one of the areas that I have also expressed frustration with DHS on because I am also one of those folks that have made a call, that I want to make a quick drop-in on one of the DHS detention facilities to be able see it, and I was also told no. That should not be so.

So I agree with my colleague from Hawaii on that, that whatever rules that apply should apply no matter what account that it comes from because the account is actually the American taxpayer, so that should apply in every single spot on that.

I do agree as well that we have got to be able to finish this out. We have tried to offer several opportunities to be able to do it, want to continue to be able to do that as well. At the very beginning of this, we couldn't reach an agreement, so we did what was called a continuing resolution, saying let's pay everybody short term until we can actually get through this. That is how we started this. That actually ended, and now, we don't have anything on it as well.

So I would like to offer a 4-week version of that to say for the next month, let's try to work through this. I think we are closer. That is my opinion on this. I think we are closer to the debate and being able to get this done. But if it is my family trying to be able to get to a paycheck, they just want to know it is going to get done.

So I would like to offer a simple amendment, that is take DHS funding, do a continuing resolution for the next month, and be able to have it all funded. Let's keep debating. Let's keep working this out but make sure that everybody gets paid.

156, H.R. 4553. I further ask that the substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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